Change Horses or Drown

‘To announce that there should be no criticism of thepresident, or that we are to stand by the president,right or wrong, it is not only unpatriotic and servile,but is morally treasonable to the American people.’– Theodore Roosevelt

Just how tough and resolute is our leader? How would he have fared on the rivers of the Mekong Delta, like John Kerry, or held up in the Hanoi Hilton, like John McCain? Well, the truth is, he’s pretty darn tough. When the going got rough in Iraq, he did not flinch. ‘Bring ’em on,’ he said. You can’t get much tougher than that.

In checking that quote yesterday (was it bring ”em’ on or bring ‘it’ on?), Google took me straight here. It’s more than a year old, and it will certainly incense those who believe a wartime president must not be criticized. But see Teddy Roosevelt, above. And note, as William Safire recently did, Franklin Roosevelt’s comeback to President Hoover, who warned of changing horses in midstream. ‘Change horses or drown!’

Even if you feel George Bush was the right man to get us into Iraq and you like the way he did it – even if, indeed, you can’t imagine any man having been able to do it better – George W. Bush is not, even so, the leader the world is looking to coalesce behind in the continuing war on terror. We desperately need a fresh start.

TWO DAYS LEFT TO COLLECT $50,000

Richard Stanford: ‘I’d remind your readers that the Texans for Truth reward offer is set to expire – unclaimed – September 30.’ So if anyone actually saw Lieutenant Bush doing his duty, here’s some easy money for you.

And speaking of money . . .

HERE’S HOW YOUR PRESIDENT LOOKS OUT FOR YOUR$

From a piece in the Los Angeles Times. In very short part (it’s worth reading the whole thing – it’s not long):

The spectacle has grown so grotesque that even conservatives like Glenn Hubbard, Robert Novak and the Wall Street Journal editorial page writers – who regard upper-class tax cuts the way teenage boys regard sex – have denounced it.